So what does a PC Volunteer do anyways?

So something many of you may be wondering is what exactly I am supposed to be doing in Senegal. Well, honestly, that is still a questionable/varying response but I will try to give you an answer. Additionally, much of what I say now will change once I get to village and talk to people about what they think to be most pressing issues are. But Ill give you a short run down.

First off, for the first 3 months in village I will mainly be working on my language skills. But after I become more confident with my Jaxanke and French (the teachers and doctor do not speak Jaxanke as they are from other regions in Senegal), I will start my work as a Health Educator. This work will most likely involve running some workshops at the health post about nutrition, sanitation, gardening exclusive breastfeeding and child health. In addition, I will probably help run and organize biweekly baby weighing and vaccinations.

This is the maternity ward at the larger town 1 km from my village. I will get to do a lot of work here as well

While I am by no means an expert at any of this, a lot this information is extremely basic and may seem obvious to us but people here are not aware of. Like washing hands with soap, even after going to the bathroom and wiping without toilet paper. I'll save you from the gory details but lets just say it is not the most hygienic thing one could do.

Two other big issues that I will work on tackling are diarrhea related deaths and malaria. Diarrhea kills millions of Africans a year because of drinking dirty water and then continuing to drink the bad water after being ill. Peace Corps has informed us that this can be solved merely by drinking 'Oral Rehydration Solution' which consists of clean water, salt and sugar.

The other main health issue that Peace Corps Senegal is trying to tackle is malaria. Malaria is the leading cause of infant death in Senegal. PC Senegal in conjunction with other PC offices around Africa have formed a 'Stomp out Malaria' initiative, trying to eliminate malaria related deaths in Africa within the next few years. http://stompoutmalaria.org/

My role in this will be to distribute mosquito nets (and makes sure they are being correctly used), talk about malaria and early diagnosis and encourage people to visit health posts once they become ill.

A common misconception is that people here have no idea what malaria is. People here are very aware of malaria and that it is a disease spread by infected mosquitoes but they assume that every illness they have is malaria. This means that whenever someone has a fever, feels ill or has stomach sickness, they automatically state that they have malaria. While this has some very real, negative consequences, I do not feel like I have been here long enough to make a valid statement about what these effects are so stay posted. Ill keep you up to date.

With all of that said, I have been bitten up a store so far. If one just looks at my ankles and feet it looks like I have chicken pox and that sit there and watch while mosquitoes bite me. So, my question so far is how can I tell people to use mosquito nets, make neem cream and not sit out past 9 o'clock when visually, it appears that I need to take my own advice?

What I have observed so far of the gender dynamics in Senegal

Everyday in Senegal, I observe another act or expectation placed upon a Senegalese person because of his or her gender that pisses me off. At first it was just the constant bark of 'Aissatou' from my brothers, telling my 16 year-old sister to get them a spoon while they are watching TV. But now, Aissatou's automatic assumption that because she is a female, she should not even try to succeed in school or find a job afterward that angers me far more. Everywhere, gender issues are multifaceted and I can not even imagine how one could successfully 'empower' a large group of women here (as so many NGO's repeatedly claim to do).

In an attempt to explain gender dynamics in Senegal, I will simplify the matter. Men bring the money home. Women take care of the home. If there is no job, then the men do not work. In this case, they will find other ways for their family to survive which may mean borrowing from other family members or moving to another location. Making tea, watching TV, playing sports and praying are the other appropriate alternative activities for males.

At my homestay there are 7 boys ranging from 30 to 14. While two of them are in school still, only one of older boys is working. The rest of them watch TV and play soccer. And that is it. My 'dad' lives in Spain and sends money back to the family. It is extremely easy for me to automatically get frustrated at how lazy my brothers appear to be. But in a way, I also feel bad for them. It is pretty embarrassing because they are failing at the one thing that they are expected to do in life, support their family. I know that if they really wanted to, they could sell fruit along the side of the road or find some other undocumented work. But instead, they blame the government and make the excuse that they are in no rush to find a job.

Meanwhile, the women are never short of housework. A man here would not be caught dead boiling water or washing his clothing and a woman would not want her man to do this sort of work. It is an honor to do this sort of work for the men in a woman's life. If a man wanted to get food for himself, it would be like saying that the woman had failed. It would be an insult to the woman.

This is the renter's children doing laundry. That is an extremely small pile.

So, while it is easy for me to get frustrated by the fact that Aissatou does EVERYTHING around the house from sweeping to serving food to fetching water, in some sense she is happy to do this. She is a prime candidate as a wife because any man could come to our house and see what a great worker she is. She is able to show what a good job she does taking care of so many men, and as she has made clear to me, her goal is to find a successful man to marry.

These expectations go hand-in-hand with why men here take several wives and why women encourage this behavior. Having a co-wife means someone who can take care of the house with them. Imagine hand washing clothing for 13 people. Let me tell you, it takes a freaking long, long time. Being able to get help from another female is essential, especially when you need to hand-pound millet to make a meal for 15 people while simultaneously breastfeed a new born. Similarly, this is why having girl children is also desirable. Girls can help around the house with these chores and take care of the younger siblings. Aissatou for instance is actually my cousin but she lives with us to help out my mom who had 5 boys. Hell, if I had to take care of a family of even just 7 people all on my own without Western technologies, I'd want another female to help me get the job done!

My mom preparing a meal in the kitchen

Partially due to these gender expectations but also other social barriers, it is very uncommon for women and men to become friends here. Because of all this, my last homestay visit was extremely difficult. While my language skills were improving, it did not mean that my brother's tried to talk to me more or invite me to do things with them. While some of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers were going out with family members and constantly interacting with them, I rarely interacted with my brothers other than to politely repeat the greetings. Additionally, it would have been fairly inappropriate or uncomfortable for me to ask them more personal questions. Another issue was that when I did ask them a question like what they had done that day, they were pretty embarrassed because all they said was that they watched TV and ate lunch.

So with all of this said, I am interested to see how these stereotypes will change in the village setting because much of this is very specific to an urban setting and my personal experience in Mbour. Additionally, do not worry, I still did have a good time in Mbour, but I am very anxious to move to village where there are more women for me to interact with. So stay posted!

A glimpse of my new home!

Bissmillah! Welcome! This is the 1 km of road leading into my village off of the main road, lined with mango trees and other beautiful greenery. It is currently hot season (and MAN is it hot!!! I drank 7 water bottles and still did not have to pee... too much info?) So it is pretty dry but I have been informed that in the rainy season (starting in the end of May) it will be very green and lush and flooded.) From this picture, it looks like there is an electricity pole going to my village, but alas, no electricity, which I am totally fine with, just gives me an excuse to go to sleep at about 10 pm every night!

 This is my hut! It is fairly large and will be well equipped since I am taking over from a current volunteer, quite convenient! My 'compound' is located on the edge of village, which I am grateful for because it means that we get some privacy and I wont constantly have people walking by my hut, quizzing me on my Jaxanke (the language I will be speaking in village). It also means that I get this view from my backyard.....

Yah!! so I get to look out onto the fields of livestock while I shower! There are dozens of donkeys (which are the NOISIEST creatures ever if you were interested in knowing), also some horses, cows, goats, sheep and other odds and ends of creatures. Also, lots of trash scatters the fields and is eaten up by the animals.

Here is my backyard! that is a fold out bed thing that I slept on outside since it was way too hot to sleep inside the hut the 2 nights that I stayed there. The fenced in area on the left contains my pit latrine, fancy right!?!

This is my 'compound' area, well, cow and all! There are several huts in my compound, so many I have lost count as my 'dad' is the chief and has several wives who live in this area. His name is Alaji Tanjan and he is extremely old, so sweet and a jolly man. I mumbled two greetings to him and I am pretty sure he was too deaf to know that I was not speaking the correct language to him as he just kept smiling away and started reciting an assortment of stories and prayers to me in an animated fashion. Super cute. His son (who has taken over many of the responsibilities as chief) and his wives live directly around me in the compound. There are 3 of them and they seemed extremely excited to have a girl Peace Corps volunteer coming to live with them. Additionally numerous kids come and go constantly, who knows exactly how they are related to me... Half of the village is a 'Tanjan', as am I, so it is kinda confusing to figure out the exact genetic makeup of people as the family structure is extremely loose here.

So this is just to make all of you jealous about me getting to eat as many mangos and I want all the time for the next two years.... Pretty delicious, although too bad that other than that all I get to eat is rice with some oily sauce haha. 

 

 

 

 So this is on the main road, in the bigger village of another new volunteer who is 10km away from me, a short bike ride. From there, we took  a 3 km bike ride to a nice hotel that has tables and hammocks overlooking the Gambia river and the National Park that borders both of our sites. We relaxed there for a few hours during the scorching hot afternoon, listening to the chirps of birds in the trees, slowly sipping cold cokes, and watching the hippos playing in the river and the baboons and monkeys swinging from the trees. Not a bad life, this will definitely become a weekly tradition.

Mandinka- my fourth language ;-)

After less than a month of learning Mandinka I have already learned to love it and have a special soft spot for the language. For starters, 'yo' means good in Mandinka. Any language where I get to constantly say 'yo!!' is awesome in my book.

Everyday here is a language challenge but for how far I have come in less than a month I feel damn good and it is all because:

a) learning a language when you are constantly surrounded by it and have small children quizzing you 24/7 is much easier than when you only work for 5 hours per week with a bunch of other people who are just as lost as you are.

b) it is such a funny, literal and backwards language that is just fascinating to learn! By backwards it is just that all of the sentence structure is backwards from English so instead of saying 'I have a garden' one says 'Naako be mbulu', or 'garden I have'. Keeps you on your toes.

c) You do not conjugate verbs. Yes that is right, for past tense you just add a little 'ta' to the end of the infinite version of the word. Soooo much easier than that etais, etais, etait, etions... or whatever that all is in Spanish.

d) There are not irregular verbs. Ok not totally true but there is like one. The verb 'to say' or 'ko' is sometimes 'fo'. I can live with that.

e) Mandinka is just awesome.

Something that I have found most fascinating about Mandinka is the literal definition of words. They are extremely unique and just bizarre to the Western ear but when you think about it, it is downright clever! One of my current favs is the word for airplane, 'Kuluntiila'. 'Kulungo' means boat and 'tiila' means to fly so it is a flying boat. Not our first instinct when describing an airplane but ya, that is basically an airplane. Also bike, 'foolee suwoo'. 'Foolee' being plastic and 'suwoo' meaning horse. To Mandinka's a bike is a plastic horse but to Malinke speakers or Jaxinke, they prefer to describe bikes as 'metal horses'.

Having a French background (even if it is super rusty) is also extremely helpful because more recent words are the same as the French just with an 'oo' added onto the end. Like 'bowloo' or 'livroo' or 'cahieroo'.

Some phrases that I mastered early on (mainly because they have to do with food, shocker right?) is things such as 'konkoo be naa' meaning 'hunger is upon me'. Or 'nsiita le!' which means it sat with me, as in, I am full. Definitely come in handy as everyone is constantly shoving more rice down my throat.

A common statement that has been made throughout training is that Senegalese people are not analytical. This may seem like a harsh or judgmental comment but just from observing the variety of words and phrases that are available in Mandinka, it is clear that this is not only true, but is hard to even find the means to express oneself in a more analytical manner due to the limitation that language imposes. For instance, I wanted to know how to say 'it is interesting' in Mandinka. I started with asking my teacher who was puzzled and then said, that embarrassingly enough, he did not have a clue. From there I repeated the same conversation with 8 family members, all of whom did not know how to say 'it is interesting' something that I ironically found to be very interesting.

Another action that is clearly restricted by the language is reading and studying. I have yet to see a Senegalese person in my neighborhood reading or studying. Every spare minute is filled with watching horrible Spanish, Indian or Senegalese soap operas that are semi-entertaining in its obscurity to me, but are Oscar winning performances to my family. I will sit there and study or read while they are glued to the TV. Every time I do this I am approached by my family with the shocking question of, 'I be karango la?'. In which I respond, yes I am studying. The word for studying and reading is the same. I always feel the need to elaborate and explain whether or not I am studying Mandinka or reading a trashy novel but they could care less. To them, I am always 'karango'.

With all of this I find extremely important to point out that this does NOT mean that people here are not extremely intelligent, hardworking, productive individuals. The women in my compound impress me every day with their constant labor and their in-depth knowledge on anything even slightly related to housework, children and the 5 plus languages that they speak. While it is partially true the fact that I am the spectacle living with them so they constantly observe me, I remain constantly impressed by how quick they are to know my habits. Every time a new quirk of mine comes up they make humorous, judging but helpful comments on how I do this wrong or am just always dirty. Once again I am just constantly reminded of how my 'Western' idea of intelligence is just as limiting as my understanding of the limitations of the Mandinka language. The Mandinka language may restrain me from expressing my opinions in the way that I have been taught. But in conjunction, my language and habits are just as foreign and restricting to them

 This is my sister Aissatou who is my savior at my homestay. She is 16 and constantly looks out for me, helps me with Mandinka and French, teaches me how to do everything from clean my feet to cook caaboo. She is holding Siiree, the cutest thing EVER and behind is Fatu, Siiree's sister. They live in the compound and their Mandinka family of 6 rents a room.

 this is the delicious tea attaya with about 6 tablespoons of sugar in the little pot being made. I drink it pretty much after every meal. It is not chocolate but hey, better than nothing.

 Me and Siiree, this is pretty much my life.

 Us at the beach, ya we struggle.

 My mom cooking my fav meal. ya it is a lot of rice... I eat out of that big bowl with 8 boys. I will have a blog soon about food....

Greetings

So I could write and write and write and brag and gloat for pages and pages but alas, I dont have time for that so instead I will focus on a seemingly small, but extremely important aspect of my current life here in Senegal: greetings.

You walk by a neighbor, a distant cousin, a grocer, a sister, a brother

No matter who, the same routine is repeated. Peace be with you! How are you? How is the family? How are you? How is so and so? It is the morning. What is your family name? You are sitting? And on and on. Round and round. Questions are repeated, answers are methodically stated. Even if your child died the day before your positive, answers and reassurance that everything is fine would not change.

With all of the greetings that go on it is really a miracle that anything ever gets done.

9:00am My language teacher, Aziz, who lives with the same family as I do, bid farewell to our family at about 9am. Farewell greetings are stated, assurances that we will be back soon, statements that we are leaving, and bon voyage is repeated.

9:15 am: We finally leave our compound and walk to the home that Venchelle, the other girl who is learning Mandinka is living at. Her father is the brother of my father and so we are one big happy family.

9:25 am: We arrive at the home of Venchelle's and are greeted with open arms. The greeting process is repeated.

9:55 am: Enough time has passed making it appropriate for us to leave. We bid farewell only to return back to my house so that Venchelle can greet my family as it would have been considered disrespectful for us not to do so.

10:15 am: We finally make our way to the primary school where we will be doing gardening.

10:20 am: We arrive at the school and walk through the soccer game that is occurring in the courtyard. About 30 children the ages of 7-14 are running around barefoot, viciously kicking the ball and tirelessly playing. Three teachers are standing off to the side watching while the classrooms lining the field remain empty. We greet the teachers who bring us into the Principle's office where an elderly man sits playing solitaire on an ancient computer. He happily welcomes us into his office, beaming with pride and offering us his best chairs to sit in. We accept and settle into his little office, listening to him rapidly speak to us in Wolof and French. I pick up some of what is being said but after 20 minutes of intense jabbering I zone out.

11:15 am: We bid farewell to the Principle, confirming that we will come back tomorrow, ready to garden and start a compost pile. After waving bye to the three teachers who stand watching the soccer match I curiously ask Aziz why there are no classes in session and these teachers stand around doing nothing!

He patiently explains that many schools have been on strike since December because of the election, meaning that these kids have not been in school for 3 months. Soccer and now our 'gardening' are their only activities. From there our day continues, more greetings, more shouts of 'Taobab' (white person) wherever we walk and tea is sipped under the hot, African sun.

This is a typical morning in Senegal, I wrote this after my first stay at in Mbour, a large town by the ocean in Senegal, about 40 km out of Thies where the Peace Corps Senegal Training Center is.  Since then, I returned to stay with my family in Mbour for a whole 2 weeks, which was an amazing, enjoyable experience.

Sending lots of love and pictures to be posted soon!

from your one and only,

Senabou Cissokou (aka Janet Smith)